Press Release 26 November 2019

Adam Blanshay Productions and Nicolas Talar present The Birmingham Repertory Theatre Production of

WHAT’S IN A NAME? BY MATTHEW DELAPORTE & ALEXANDRE DE LA PATELLIÈRE ADAPTED & DIRECTED BY JEREMY SAMS

 WHAT’S IN A NAME? RETURNS HOME TO BIRMINGHAM, AS THE HIT PLAY EXTENDS UK TOUR

 JOE THOMAS, BO PORAJ, LAURA PATCH, LOUISE MARWOOD AND ALEX GAUMOND WILL REUNITE TO STAR IN THE FEROCIOUS COMEDY, ADAPTED AND DIRECTED BY JEREMY SAMS

 INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED BIRMINGHMAM REPERTORY THEATRE PRODUCTION OPENS AT THE ALEXANDRA THEATRE ON 11 MARCH 2020, THEN VISITS LEICESTER, BATH, POOLE, BRADFORD, BRIGHTON AND BROMLEY

 IMAGES AVAILABLE TO DOWNLOAD HERE

whatsinanameplay.com T: @WhatNamePlay | F: /WhatsInANamePlay | #WhatsInAName

Adam Blanshay Productions is pleased to announce further venues are now on sale for the first UK Tour of international hit comedy What’s In A Name?, adapted and directed by Jeremy Sams from the award-winning French film and stage sensation, Le Prènom, by Matthew Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière.

The ferocious comedy has garnered critical acclaim from across the country since first embarking in the autumn earlier this year, with praise in particular for the cast who will be returning in the new year; Joe Thomas (The Inbetweeners, Fresh Meat), Bo Poraj (Miranda, Musketeers), Laura Patch (After Life, Star Stories), Louise Marwood (Emmerdale) and Alex Gaumond (Company, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Matilda).

What’s In A Name? hilariously captures a particularly awkward family dinner party. The witty and razor-sharp production will return to Birmingham, where audiences will have a second opportunity to catch the play after it first opened at the Birmingham Repertory Theatre in 2017. The extended tour kicks off again at The Alexandra Theatre in March 2020 and will then visit Leicester, Bath, Poole, Bradford, Brighton and Bromley.

Father-to-be Vincent and his partner Anna are invited to dinner by his sister Elizabeth and her husband, Peter. They are joined by childhood friend Carl for a mature and sophisticated gathering.

The meal is lovingly prepared, and wine carefully selected. The friends are prepared for the usual humorous exchanges they've come to expect.

But tonight, a startling revelation about the name chosen for Vincent's and Anna’s expected child becomes the catalyst for a destructive argument which spirals hysterically out of control. Tonight no one is holding back! Egos, childish resentment and unspoken feelings are relentlessly and hilariously exposed for the first time.

What’s In A Name? is written by Matthew Delaporte and Alexandre De La Patellière with adaptation, translation and direction by Jeremy Sams. Set design is by Francis O’Connor and lighting design is by Rick Fisher.

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For further information please contact The Corner Shop PR on 0207 831 7657 Lewis Jenkins | Hannah Barnett Leveson

LISTINGS INFORMATION

IMAGES Available to download HERE

For tickets and more information please visit: whatsinanameplay.com

T: @WhatNamePlay | F: /WhatsInANamePlay | #WhatsInAName

The Alexandra Theatre, Birmingham 11 – 14 March 0870 607 7533 | www.atgtickets.com/venues/the-alexandra-theatre-birmingham/

Curve Studio, Leicester 16 – 21 March 0116 242 3595 | www.curveonline.co.uk/

Theatre Royal Bath 23 – 28 March 01225 448844 | www.theatreroyal.org.uk/

Lighthouse, Poole’s Centre for the Arts 30 March – 4 April 01202 280000 | www.lighthousepoole.co.uk/

The Alhambra Theatre, Bradford 7 – 11 April 0 1274 432000 | www.bradford-theatres.co.uk/venues/the-alhambra-theatre

Theatre Royal Brighton 15 – 18 April 0844 871 7650 | www.atgtickets.com/venues/theatre-royal-brighton/

Churchill Theatre, Bromley 21 – 26 April 020 3285 6000 | churchilltheatre.co.uk/

NOTES TO EDITORS

CAST BIOGRAPHIES

Playing Vincent will be Joe Thomas, an actor and writer best known as Simon in the multi-award winning E4 show The Inbetweeners. Following the success of The Inbetweeners (and the two eponymous films that followed) Joe starred as Kingsley in all four series of Fresh Meat, and as George in Chickens, which he also co-wrote. Most recently Joe starred as Nick in the 2018 feature film The Festival and as Martin Lavender in

the BBC2 sitcom White Gold. Joe has script development deals with Channel 4 and Fudge Park/BBC and was on the latest series of Dave’s Taskmaster.

Bo Poraj will be playing Peter. He is perhaps most well-known for his role as Mike in the ever popular BBC comedy series Miranda. He played a regular role in Musketeers (BBC) and has been seen in The Thick Of It and Boomers (also BBC). On stage his most recent credits include Rasheeda Speaking (Trafalgar Studios 2, nominated for Best Supporting Male in a Play Award, Off-West End Theatre Awards), Gloria, Acceptance (Hampstead Theatre) and Blithe Spirit (Theatre Royal Bath, UK Tour, West End). Film credits include The Boat That Rocked.

The role of Elizabeth will be played by Laura Patch, a comedy performer and actor known for playing various roles in Star Stories. Most recently Laura appeared in Ricky Gervais’ Netflix series Afterlife. Further television credits include A Brief History of Tim, New Tricks, Dol & Em, Youngers, Holby City, Starlings, Being Human and The IT Crowd, along with the web series Bad Mother. Film credits include Songbird alongside Cobie Smulders and Jessica Hynes.

Playing Anna will be Louise Marwood, who received a scholarship to study at The Oxford School of Drama in 2012 and, shortly after, began her time at Emmerdale where she played Chrissie White for almost four years. Before that she was in Comedy Sketch show Comedy Bitch at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe and was shortlisted in 2009 for the Foster’s Comedy Award. Since then she has written a pilot (that she is attached to) which is in development with Fudgepark productions (Inbetweeners, White Gold) having just submitted a treatment to Channel 4 with them.

Carl is played by Alex Gaumond, who most recently received critical acclaim for his role as Paul in Marianne Elliott’s multi-Olivier® award-winning revival of Stephen Sondheim’s Company in the West End. Further stage credits include A Christmas Carol (Old Vic), Caroline, Or Change (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Taming of the Shrew (Shakespeare’s Globe), The Trial of Jane Fonda (Park Theatre), Into the Woods (Manchester Royal Exchange), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre), Sweeney Todd (ENO) and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, RSC’s Matilda: The Musical, Top Hat and We Will Rock You (all West End). Film credits include The Hustle, My Dinner with Hervé and Hampstead.

Highly respected director Jeremy Sams has adapted and directed multiple celebrated productions. As a director his credits include Oklahoma! (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Wizard of Oz (West End and World Tour), The Sound of Music (West End and Toronto), Noises Off (National Theatre, West End, UK Tour and Broadway) and Benefactors (UK Tour and West End). His credits as an adaptor include The Park (Royal Shakespeare Company), The Rehearsal (Almeida and West End), Beckett (West End) and Les Parents Terribles (National Theatre and Broadway).

The original play, Le Prènom, premiered in 2010 at the Théâtre Édouard VII in Paris, France, where the production received six Molière Award nominations and ran for over 300 performances. Matthew Delaporte and Alexandre de La Patellière then wrote the screenplay for the film (2011) which played to over 3.25 million people in France alone. It received widespread critical acclaim, and won several César awards from the French Academy of Cinema Arts and Techniques, along with the Grand Prix Hydro-Québec at the Festival du cinéma international en Abitibi-Témiscamingue, and the Radio Canada Audience Award at the Cinéfranco International Francophone Film Festival in Toronto. The Italian translation of the movie went on to receive several prestigious Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalist awards. The play has now been translated into over 22 languages, and has had incredible box office success around the world.

Adam Blanshay Productions Adam Blanshay Productions is a London based theatrical production company, headed by Adam Blanshay and Edward Johnson, which produces, co-produces and manages a wide range of musicals, plays, comedies and live event theatre across the UK, West End, Broadway and Australia. ABP is largely committed to developing highly acclaimed French theatre for English speaking audiences.

Produced over 60 productions worldwide. Winner of six Tony® Awards, seven Olivier® Awards, and one Helpmann® Award.

Current productions include: Come From Away (West End), Moulin Rouge (Broadway), Waitress (West End), Kinky Boots (UK Tour), and Fiddler On The Roof (West End).

Recent productions include: Network (Broadway), Edmond de Bergerac (Birmingham Repertory Theatre & UK Tour), Intra Muros (Park Theatre), Notre Dame de Paris (London Coliseum), Fiddler On The Roof

(Menier Chocolate Factory), Consent (West End), Angels In America (Broadway), The Color Purple (US Tour), The Winslow Boy (UK Tour), Quartet (UK Tour), A Long Way From Home (New Wimbledon Theatre).

Full biography: www.adamblanshay.com Social Media: @AdamBlanshayPro